Tolls Could Pay for I-70 Rebuild

ST. LOUIS (KMOX)-The long talked about rebuilding of Interstate 70 between St. Louis and Kansas City could be funded by motorists, paying tolls.

MoDOT District Engineer Ed Hassinger says the department’s top priority in the legislative session that begins in January, will be asking lawmakers to allow it to form a public-private partnership to rebuild the highway, “That means that we would allow a consortium to come in and one of the primary revenue sources they would probably propose would be to toll the road.”

Hassinger says the legislature had given MoDOT permission to use a public-private partnership to build the new Mississippi River bridge, but it was never used. He says they will ask legislators to transfer that permission to I-70.

Hassinger says it will likely take $2-3 billion and 10 years to complete the rebuild. He says that while much of the prep work, including environmental studies have been completed, work on the project wouldn’t begin for at least a few years. He says what form the rebuild would take wouldn’t be decided until after the funding mechanism is in place.